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Incident in Redspeckle Mine, The (3.5e Quest)/The Mine
The mine is mostly deserted. A few miners still work here and there, but most are refusing to work now that the mine has come under attack. Descriptions of the mine should be no more detailed than is necessary; the PCs will most likely quickly pass through the mine without incident. The mine walls and floors are hewn stone, shored up with wooden frames along the walls and over the ceiling. The mine is dark; miners carry their own lanterns, although the wall supports have hooks to hang lanterns every 10'. Many of the mine tunnels have cart tracks. Sorting Field Just outside of the entrance to the tunnel is the sorting field, a flattened square with ore tables set up, surrounded by an embankment of gravel and stones five feet high on three sides, and a wooden wall holding back the mountain soil on the other. At first glance, it might be mistaken for a market, except for the lack of advertisements, that every table only holds a pile of rocks, and the ore cart tracks. Instead, it is here that the rocks brought out of the mine, and the ores are separated from the tailings. The former are stored in a pit before smelting or export, and the latter are simply piled onto the wall. Many of the tables have canvas tent-roofs over them, protecting the workers from rain and sun. Others work in the elements. A gap in the gravel held back by more wood connects the sorting field to the town proper. Entering the sorting field, the PCs notice that, while all of the trappings of a busy workplace are still there, there are only two workers still sorting; the other tables have abandoned piles of rock or none at all, some under their "tents" and some without. On their left, the entrance to the mine gapes, a wooden hallway 5' wide and 5' high into the terrace, with dirt and rock piled atop it. Main Tunnel The main tunnel is a square tunnel that reaches deep into the mountain at a slight upslope, with cart tracks running along it. About a hundred feet from the entrance, the tunnel reaches a small chamber about 20' by 15', with a 5' ceiling. A small circular shaft about 3' in diameter sits in one corner, with a ladder down and a pulley mechanism rigged to the ceiling to allow buckets of rock to be hauled up. If the PCs are being guided in the mine, their guide will lead them down this shaft. Shaft This shaft is about 30' deep, tight (about 3' across) and dark; there are no lantern brackets anywhere in the shaft. Its walls are as roughly-hewn as the rest of the mine, and a wooden ladder provides the way up and down. At the bottom of the shaft, the ladder continues into the room below, where it lets out on a wooden platform. Excavated Chamber This is a large excavated chamber where a particularly rich ore-bearing rock was. It has been excavated in layers, giving it a 30' high ceiling in places and a number of 5' pits in the floor, some of which have been covered with wood. Tunnels slope up in all directions from it, and an exploratory shaft drops from below it, guarded by two guards (Half-orc War2), covered with an iron cover. If the PCs have a guide, they will be directed to it, and their guide will help them unbolt the cover to go in. Their guide cannot go further. The platform the PCs enter on is 8' from the ceiling, and has a number of pulley-buckets off the side to transfer ore and tailings upward, as well as several bins around the edge of the platform; it also has a sloped ladder down. Exploratory Shaft This shaft is identical to the previous shaft, except that after 50' it drops into a cavern with a ceiling 15' high. The shaft has a sliding ladder in it, long enough to slide down and reach the floor, currently in the "up" position.